Can I burn native VCD content on a DVD for viewing on a set-top player?

[aefx]

I have been reading these forums for awhile, and it's been extremely helpful. I have a specific situation that I can't seem to address, and would appriciate any guidance.

I have a bunch of VCD content (each equal to the size of a normal VCD) which when viewed on my TV looks great. When I transcode them to DVD, I can only fit two of them in the space and the quality is actually worse than when I burn them onto a CD and watch them that way.

What I would like to do is to get a bunch of them on one DVD in the VCD format. Is this impossible? These files are about 500mb each, and as I said - look great when burned out like that to a CD. Is there a program out there that will allow me to do this? Is there an inherent limit in the VCD format?

Thanks very much, and if I can explain any better please ask. :)

aefx

[Dimmer]

Welcome to the forums.

You don't need to transcode the video - DVD can play standard VCD MPEG-1 files. As a simple yet reliable authoring program, I usually recommend TMPGEnc DVD Author (http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tda.html) (TDA). You can simply drag and drop standard VCD files into it, create menus if desired, and you're set.

However, watch for the audio sync - DVD uses different audio sampling rate (48kHz) than VCD (44.1kHz). In certain cases, this may lead to audio gradually going out of sync. If this happens, you'll need to demux the audio and re-encode it at 48kHz, then re-author the DVD.

[aefx]

Thank you so much for your reply, Dimmer. I was able to do exactly what I wanted, and thankfully had no audio sync problems - there actually seemed to be an option for TMPGEnc to convert the audio to 48kHz, and it worked beautifully.

Had a great marathon at my place today, and it was all on one disc - and I saw much more consistent quality than when I burned the same content to individual VCDs. I'm sure it was just that TMPGEnc is a better program anyway, but this is the best this stuff has looked on my set-top player.

Thanks again! You helped make a bunch of people really happy today. :)

Aefx

[Dimmer]

You're welcome, glad I could help.